By Akani Nkuna
Build One South Africa’s (BOSA) Cape Town mayoral candidate Roger Solomons said on Saturday the city was not broken but “unfinished”, using his nomination acceptance speech to frame the 2026 local government elections as a contest over affordability, housing, safety and whether growth reaches residents across the city.
Solomons, BOSA’s national spokesperson, is entering a widening race to challenge the Democratic Alliance’s control of South Africa’s only DA-run metro.
“The next chapter for Cape Town must be a deliberate shift, from stability to shared progress, where growth, safety and opportunity are experienced across the whole city. Administrative competence and relative stability have been achieved, and that must be acknowledged,” he said.
“But competence alone does not create justice, and stability alone does not create inclusion. I am not stepping up to lead Cape Town because I believe the city is broken. I am stepping up, because I believe it is unfinished.”
South Africa is scheduled to hold local government elections on 4 November. The DA has named incumbent mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis as its Cape Town candidate, while ActionSA has named Dereleen James and GOOD and Rise Mzansi have backed Brett Herron.
The DA retained Cape Town in the 2021 municipal elections with 58.2% of the vote and 135 seats, giving it an outright majority. Opposition parties are expected to campaign heavily on inequality, housing, public transport, safety and the cost of living in the city.
Solomons said affordability would be the central organising principle of a BOSA-led administration, arguing that the city’s decisions should be judged by their impact on residents.
“Cape Town should be the easiest city in South Africa in which to build a life. Not the most expensive city in which to survive,” Solomons said.
“A city where affordability is the organising principle of governance. Where decisions are not first asked: what does this cost the City? But rather: what does this cost the resident? Because those are not always the same question. And too often, they have been answered in reverse.”
He said the high cost of living in Cape Town was not only placing financial pressure on households, but also causing emotional and mental strain.
Solomons said a BOSA-led city government would seek to remove municipal business licence fees for qualifying small and micro-enterprises in their first year of operation, while also investing more deliberately in township economies and informal businesses.
He also promised to improve digital inclusion and support more affordable and reliable public transport to connect communities with economic hubs.
On housing, Solomons said the city needed to accelerate delivery and make better use of public land.
“I will treat housing as one of the defining affordability pressures of this city. We will commit to doubling the current rate and delivering at least 10,000 affordable housing opportunities per year. We will conduct a full audit of all municipal land within 90 days of taking office. And we will establish a City Land Housing Programme that ensures public land is used for public need,” Solomons said.
Solomons said his Christian upbringing had shaped his understanding of responsible leadership and public service, and said residents should be more directly involved in decisions affecting their communities.
BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane said South African politics had become too focused on division and “victimhood” rather than collaboration.
He said BOSA wanted to break single-party dominance in Cape Town and was open to participating in a coalition government after the 2026 local government elections.
“People fear coalitions, and maybe they have reasons to do so. There is strength in coalitions because coalitions bring different ideas,” Maimane said.
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